


Sacrifice

by Meilan_Firaga



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Holidays, Ugly Holiday Sweaters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 23:24:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9146605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/pseuds/Meilan_Firaga
Summary: Mako's not exactly overflowing with holiday spirit, and--to be perfectly honest--she's not in the habit of expecting anyone else to be. That all changes very abruptly when she finds an unexpected sight in her shared bunk. PR Secret Santa 2016 gift for MayQueen517.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MayQueen517](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayQueen517/gifts).



> A Pacific Rim Secret Santa 2016 gift for MayQueen517. I'm so sorry that this is so late! Real life decided to smack me really hard in the face over the holidays. I had originally planned to do something for your Tendo/Alison/Herc prompt, but for some reason this one just wouldn't let go. I hope you like it!

Mako Mori took two steps into the bunk she shared with Raleigh Becket and froze, a bit of dread beginning to grow in the pit of her stomach. Space had grown scarce in the Shatterdome since the closing of the Breach. As the only remaining drift team, she and Raleigh had been asked to room together to free up bunk space for the mass influx of people. A contingent of scientists studying the remains of the kaiju phenomenon had been assigned to work under Newt and Herman, and Marshall Hanson had recruited a battalion military strategists to develop plans to prevent another apocalyptic catastrophe should the settler aliens set their sights on Earth once more. It had been surprisingly uncomplicated to share such close quarters with Raleigh.

The past tense was important.

Lights twinkled across the ceiling, flashing slowly in a rainbow of colors. Garlands were wound over the doorways and across the top of the dresser. Ribbons and bits of tinsel were on display in every available location. At the foot of each of their beds was a stocking, their names scrawled across the top in shaky lettering. Upon closer inspection, she could see flecks of glitter in the names. Her stocking was already lumpy in the bottom, as though someone had already begun to fill it with treats. The worst part, though, was the knitted monstrosity folded on top of her pillow. From the doorway she could make out at least three different colors of glitter, a felt candy cane, and something that was supposed to be either reindeer antlers or the branches of a bare tree, all displayed on a background of what looked to be the least comfortable green wool on the planet.

A small snort sounded behind her, and Mako turned to find Tendo Choi standing in the hallway just outside her door. He was wearing a powder blue sweater vest with a Jaeger snowman felted to the front and a bow tie patterned with snowflakes. He shook his head in amusement, waving a small photo book in her general direction.

“I came to warn you,” he began, “but it looks like I’m too late.”

“Warn me about what?” Mako asked sweetly. “Is the holiday insanity contagious?”

Tendo didn’t laugh. “I didn’t used to think so.” He let himself into the room and settled on the end of Mako’s bed, patting the space beside him. “Then Raleigh and Alison got to talking.”

Mako let out a snort of her own as she settled beside him. “Your sweet wife turned Raleigh into a Christmas nut?” She didn’t hate the holidays exactly. They had just never been all that big of a deal in her life. 

“Try the other way around.” Tendo flipped open the photo album. The first picture was of Raleigh--younger and without the lines of pain all over his face--standing side by side with another man that she recognized from her reading as his brother, Yancy. They were wearing bright red sweaters that made one picture between them when the brothers were standing as they were, arms around each other’s shoulders and sides pressed together. Yancy’s sweater had the head and forelegs of a reindeer with a bright red nose. Raleigh’s showed the reindeer’s backside. Behind them was Gipsy Danger covered in gaudy Christmas decorations. Someone had attached a red light to the Jaeger’s face. “Christmas at the Anchorage Shatterdome was an experience,” Tendo assured her.

Tendo began to flip through the album, showing her pictures of stockings hung from control panels, personnel wearing ridiculous sweaters, and even a Christmas tree cobbled together from spare parts. As he flipped through, he told her stories of holidays from half a decade before. “Their sister, Jazmine, was allowed to visit the Shatterdome during the holidays. The three of them were a menace of merriment.” He flipped to a picture of the Becket brothers with a teenage girl between them. All three of them were wearing hideous sweaters with varying sizes of snowmen. “They filled Marshal Pentecost’s office with balloons one year. They were all stuffed with glitter. Huge drama.” Mako laughed aloud, picturing her late mentor fighting through a downpour of shiny flecks. Tendo grew quiet. When he spoke again, his tone was much less amused.

“Raleigh told Alison that he hasn’t really celebrated since we lost Yancy,” he told her, closing the album gently. “He said it didn’t feel like there was anything worth celebrating since the whole world was already dying.” Tendo shook his head. “Alison was crying and hanging decorations when I came home. Apparently, Raleigh found the Christmas spirit again.” He plucked at the sweater vest. “He dropped off sweaters for all three of us, and I was pretty much told that I could either wear it or sleep on the couch until February. I passed Marshal Hansen on my way here. He was wearing a Santa hat.” Tendo pushed to his feet, tucking the album under one arm. He dropped a companionable hand on her shoulder. “I’m not too much of a Christmas person,” he admitted, “and I get the feeling you aren’t, either.”

Mako rolled her eyes. “Really? What was your first clue.”

“I know,” Tendo conceded with a laugh, holding up one hand to stave off more sarcasm. “It’s annoying and gimicky and commercial. But it’s making Raleigh happy. This place is big, but not big enough to escape him in a holiday mood.” He turned to leave, then paused in the doorway and looked back at her. “He makes all the sweaters, by the way. Not the knitting part, but the ridiculous crap glued to the front. He always said that he had to have just the right design for each person, so store-bought just wouldn’t do.”

For a long time after Tendo left, Mako sat on the bed and thought about everything she’d learned. There was so much in the Drift with Raleigh. His grief, his pain...but, she had caught passing glimpses of unmistakable joy in the times they were connected. Even now, as she considered the idea of spiked eggnog and off-key carols a flash of warmth erupted from bits of memory that weren’t entirely her own. Reaching for her pillow, she tugged the lump of sweater there into her lap and unfolded it. The spindly brown lines were, indeed, antlers. The head of a mechanical reindeer came up the front of the sweater from the left side, its body trailing off the garment and a felt candy cane clamped between its teeth like a knife. In shaky, glittering letters above its head were the words ‘Then all the kaiju’. She flipped the sweater over. The phrase didn’t continue onto the back.

“Hey, Mako!” Raleigh called, swinging into view around the doorframe. He was, of course, wearing a sweater of his own. It was the same color green as the one in her hands and had the backside of a mechanical reindeer coming in from his right side. The same awkward, sparkling letters finished the phrase from her own sweater. Side by side, they would say ‘Then all the kaiju fucking died!’ Mako’s heart thudded painfully in her chest as the picture of he and Yancy in their red reindeer sweaters popped up in her mind. Raleigh grinned. “Put that on,” he insisted, gesturing at the sweater in her hands. “Then come down to the helipad. You have to meet my sister!”

He was gone as quickly as he’d appeared, another wooly horror clutched in one hand. With a slow jingling sound, the Marshal’s dog wandered past the open door. Max was dressed as an elf with a collar of bells around his neck. Snickering, Mako shrugged on her sweater, smoothing its goofy design down her front. They had so much to celebrate now. She could wear a little itchy wool without complaints. Rangers understood sacrifice. She ran her hand down the side of the sweater where the reindeer trailed off. Hopefully, someone would have a camera. They'd be needing new pictures.


End file.
